N. Scott Momaday

N. Scott Momaday (left) receiving the National Medal of Arts from George W. Bush in 2007.

Navarre Scott Momaday (born February 27, 1934) is a Kiowa-Cherokee Pulitzer Prize-winning writer from Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona.^[1]

Background

He is the son of the writer Natachee Scott Momaday and the painter Al Momaday, and was born on February 27, 1934 at the Kiowa-Comanche Indian Hospital in Lawton, Oklahoma, United States. He is enrolled in the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma but also has Cherokee heritage from his mother.^[1]

Writing career

Momaday's novel House Made of Dawn led to the breakthrough of Native American literature into the mainstream. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969.

Bibliography

• The Journey of Tai-me (1967)
• House Made of Dawn (1968)
• The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969) (illustrated by his father, Alfred Momaday)
• Angle of Geese (1974)
• The Gourd Dancer (1976)
• The Names: A Memoir (1976)
• The Ancient Child (1989)
• In the Presence of the Sun (1992)
• The Native Americans: Indian County (1993)
• The Indolent Boys (play) world premiere Syracuse Stage 1993-94 season
• Circle of Wonder: A Native American Christmas Story (1994)
• The Man Made of Words: Essays, Stories, Passages (1997)
• In the Bear's House (1999)

Honors

Momaday was featured in the Ken Burns and Stephen Ives' documentary, The West, for his masterful retelling of Kiowa history and legend. He is also featured in PBS documentaries concerning boarding schools and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Momaday is the Oklahoma Centennial Poet Laureate^[2]

In 1992, Momaday received the first Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas.^[3] He was awarded a 2007 National Medal of Arts by former President George W. Bush.^[4] N. Scott Momaday received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Illinois at Chicago on May 9, 2010.

Recent activities

Momaday founded and operates the Rainy Mountain Foundation^[5] and Buffalo Trust, a nonprofit organization working to preserve native cultures.^[6] He paints in watercolors and illustrated his own book, In the Bear's House.

Quotes

• "I sometimes think the contemporary white American is more culturally deprived than the Indian."^[7]
• "I simply kept my goal in mind and persisted. Perseverance is a large part of writing."^[7]

See also

Novels portal

• List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas
• Native American Renaissance
• Native American Studies

References & notes

External links

• Works by or about N. Scott Momaday in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• N. Scott Momaday from the Modern American Poetry site
• The Buffalo Trust - Momaday's non-profit charitable foundation
• Perspectives in American Literature - Momaday Bibliography
• Interview with Momaday
• Article about Momaday's selection as Poet Laureate of Oklahoma
• "N. Scott Momaday" by Martha Scott Trimble in the Western Writers Series Digital Editions
• Voices of Oklahoma interview with N. Scott Momaday. First person interview conducted with N. Scott Momaday on December 10, 2010. Original audio and transcript archived with Voices of Oklahoma oral history project.